Secrets of Ausburg

Chapter 9

Roxanne's POV

"What are you looking at?" I asked Jean who wandered off the hallway.

"Clues. Anything actually. I'm getting a bit nervous and bored here." She tried to open some of the doors, but to no avail did the door budge. She continued her quest to open another door after giving up on that one particular door. When the other door failed to open, thousands of curse word flying out her mouth. Good thing Giselle was not here. I could just imagine how Eric was trying to keep her tongue tied up.

The cupboards along the hallway seemed to be more interesting than watching Jean kicking off the door. Maybe I could find something that piqued my thirst of knowledge about this place. Every cupboards here had the same characteristic; antique carvings and shaded glass.

I tried to clean the dusty glass to peek what was inside. Some of the cupboards were displaying valuable porcelain doll, some of them were displaying black and white photos. I wondered why anyone wouldn't steal those precious porcelain. It would cost a fortune if I sold it in an auction. But honestly, I wouldn't steal them. They're too creepy for my own good.

When I was looking through the glass of every cupboards displayed in the hallway, suddenly, I heard a door creaked. Glancing back, I spotted Jean finally managed to open one of the doors, and her face was excited. Apparently, if she was not this over excited, maybe she would've said "Look, Rox! Finally I opened a fricking door after decades of hunting!"

But then her face changed into a gloomy one; so I took a peek inside the room she was already opened. Turned out, it was a library with numerous bookshelves, and I swore to God, I wanted to reorganize this place. Libraries should be tidy. Or, at least the books were on the right place.

Several books were lying on the ground, stacked with some papers, maybe documents, and it wasn't even balanced. For goodness sake! I could ensure that if I touched one of these stacks, it would fall right away.

"After all of these doors, only a library?" Jean sighed. "It's not even tidy!"

Well, welcome to the world of Jean and Roxanne. Back in high school, we even hanging around our school's library for hours just because the books weren't placed in where they should be. So, we mostly spent our second break time at the library, organizing books. The librarian doesn't even care; and the school obviously didn't give us any money for our labor. We had no qualms about it because we did it for fun.

My fingers were itching to arrange this place. Spiderwebs hanging heavily on the wall, dust covered every surface possible, moldy bookcase everywhere, and musty smell wafted through the air. Yuck!

Never thought that I needed my cleaning supplies. If I had known, I would have brought it with me and not leaving them at the inn. But, I might as well didn't do anything because it wasn't really my territory.

Yeah. Me, myself was wondering: "whoa, reckless Roxanne who nearly give up her life isn't doing something reckless this time?" but believe me, I would, if Eric wasn't on the other side of the mansion and Jean wasn't beside me.

Jean sighed every time she looked at every bookcase, clearly wasn't delighted by this room.

"Aw, stop it Jean. Stop sighing like it's the end of the world," I said, putting a faint forced smile, because honestly, I'd sigh heavier at the condition of this room. "We better hurry find some clues. Library should guide us to a good start."

As Jean started to look one by one, stack by stack and I wandered around the library, checking anything that deemed to be interesting or unusual.

It was hard. Everything here piqued my interest. I had a hard time keeping myself in line rather than jumping around and stacking those old books so I could bring them home to read it.

My eyes scanned the center of the library once again and landed on a fireplace. This peculiar fireplace drew my attention. I didn't know why should I be so curious about the fireplace since it was only a fireplace, but this fireplace seemed to have a different aura than the rest of the room. Unlike the other side of the library, this place where I stood felt... sad. I could feel it. If there was no one here but me, maybe I'd cry out of nowhere.

The fireplace was made from onyx, as black as night without lights. It stood tall and proud with its intricate carvings, very detailed yet brought chills over my body. Something was definitely wrong with this fireplace.

I stood up and looked through the window beside the fireplace. The view was straight to the graveyard. There, stood a little, cold statue of concrete angels. There were two of them beside one grave, the angels were protecting the grave.

When I was busy on observing the view, suddenly, a loud creaking noise came from the fireplace. I immediately leaped back in surprise when a filthy rat suddenly came out from the fireplace

Strange, I didn't see that rat before. Where would it came from?

I observed the fireplace carefully, setting aside the heavy dust with my hands, removed the shards of old woods from the sight, and discovered white paper, a paper tore from a diary, I think?

"Jean, I found something here!" I called out. She immediately came over and crouched down beside me. Her eyes was filled with curiosity and we read what was written on the paper together.

19th May, 1990

It was my 18th birthday! I was extremely excited today. I got a special surprise! Victor came to join the dinner with the family. He gave me a bouquet of  Lilies, my favorite flower, and he proposed to me when I came down to greet him. I was utterly shocked. My heart soared with happiness and I couldn't wish for more from him. It was the best birthday present ever! And we're happily engaged.

Martha, our cook, prepared all of my favorite dishes for today. She also made me a red velvet cake. It was as red as blood, as sweet as sugar, and was decorated beautifully. 

As for mum and dad, they told me they didn't have any special gift for me this year. I didn't mind because they've added a new member to our family. It was a twin. I now have a twin brother. They were so stunning and I fell in love as soon as they came to my peripheral vision. Their curly brown hair framing their round face. Their eyes were as green as shining emerald. Their rosy cheeks were inviting me to pinch them. But their whole expression really stricken my heart. It was blotchy after crying; puffy red eyes, and sad. It was heart-wrenching for me to look at them.

Mum told me that they had found them in the village early in the morning. Their house was attacked by The Fitzgerald due to their parent's inability to pay the tax. Their parents were both killed in the accident.

I never thought that they would be so inhuman. Anna Fitzgerald was once my best friend. But it was before our parents told us to stay away from each other. And before....

-J.A.A-

I couldn't make out of the last paragraph. It was blurred that only the initial of the writer's name could be read. I could only guess what the writer would write at the last paragraph. Maybe she would be reminiscing about her childhood friend.

I sighed in defeat, disappointed with the only clue we found since we  stepped into this mansion.

"At least we find something." Jean said as she read my facial expression.

I nodded in response with a new determination to find more clues.